Throughout the history, there have been many cruel rulers that use terror to gain control of public. They rule with an iron fist and an unrelenting thirst for power and recognition. Unfortunately for society there was too many for them all to fit on the list, so here’s the worst of the worst. From bad to worst, here are the top 15 most cruel rulers ever in history.
History is proof of the cruelty of dictators but some dictators were so cruel that they never forgave even women and children. These dictators have killed millions on a large scale and I don’t think they ever regret that. But whatever, below we have listed worst dictators of Human history that have killed millions of people for their silly attitude and policies.
Top 15 Ruthless Leaders of All Time:
15. Augusto Pinochet
“Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte” was a military dictator and a politician and an Army General of Chile. Pinochet ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990 and became the first leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981. Augusto Pinochet overthrew the Chilean government and shut down the parliament, banned trade unions and snatched all freedom rights from people including ‘Right To Life’ and ‘Right To speech’. Pinochet made Chile a living hell and reports say that more than 3000 were killed and more than 35000 were tortured for years. But unluckily Pinochet and all his followers were reported dead before they could face a trial.
14. Idi Amin
Full name:- ‘Idi Amin Dada Oumee’ was 3rd Former President Of Uganda and also served as an Ugandan military officer. Idi Amin came into power through a military coup in 1971 to 1979 before he was forced to flee in 1979. Some reports consider him as the Most Brutal Despots In Human history. Amin was born in 1925 in Koboko, Uganda to a Kakwa father and a Lugbara mother. He is considered as the most brutal Despots. Because reports tell that he brutally killed more than 5,00,000 people in his rule of 8 years. He spent a large amount of money on the military and drove most of the Asian population to Uganda including; Most of the Indian and Pakistani population.
One of the most cruel rulers ever. He hate Europeans “We Africans used to carry Europeans, but now Europeans are carrying us. We are now the masters … They came from Britain and wanted to show that I really have power in my country”. Amin was eventually overthrown, but until his death, he held that Uganda needed him and he never expressed remorse for the abuses of his regime. On 20 July 2003, died at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from kidney failure.
13. Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong was the founding father of the Chinese Communist Party Chairman and was also known as “Chairman Mao”. He ruled as the chairman of CCP ( Chinese Communist Party) for nearly 37 years until his death from 1949-1976. He was a very brutal leader. Under his rule he took Agriculture and industry under State Control but his supporters still say that he modernized China. You can estimate his cruelty by his policies due to which more than 40 Million were reported dead due to starvation.
12. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler is among one of the most brutal dictators in the last 100 years. He was an Austrian Born German Politician that rose in power as the leader of Nazi Community. Hitler got a chance for dictatorship after Germany lost the first World War and people preferred a dictatorship but they were not unknown about upcoming problems. More than 11 million people were reported dead under Hitler’s Rule. Hitler used to torture people till death. Hitler killed opposition leaders, bisexuals, Jews, Slavs and gypsies and believed that Nazi were the only Pure Blood of Germany and they have the only freedom to live on land of Germany. He ruled from 1933-1945 and attempted suicide after he saw he was facing defeat in the Second World War.
11. Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin was the ruler of the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 and was a Georgian Revolutionary. He ruled Soviet Union for 26 years once as the “General Secretary Of The Communist Party of Soviet Union and second time as the “Chairman of Council Of Ministers”. He enforced quick industrialisation and collectivisation in the 1930s. His ideas didn’t get well and millions of people died due to starvation in labour camps and the famous “Great Purge” of the Intelligentsia.
Stalin probably exercised greater political power than any other figure in history. In the 1930s, by his orders, millions of peasants were either killed or permitted to starve to death. Stalin brought about the deaths of more than 20 million of his own people while holding the Soviet Union in an iron grip for 29 years.
10. Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin or The Lenin served as the founder head of the government of Soviet Union from 1922-1924 and of the Soviet Russia from 1917-1924. Lenin came into power through a coup into Russia and his Bolshevik Party seized all power from the government and the dictatorship began. The coup is also known as the famous “October Revolution”. During the revolution War and Famine started at a large scale and resulted in the death of millions of people. Lenin is also described as the most revolutionary statesman and revolutionary leader and also the Greatest Thinker in History ever after Marx.
9. Queen Mary I (aka Bloody Mary)
Girls are giving a great competition to boys even if it is the competition of the most ruthless leaders of all time. Queen Mary ruled England from 1553-1558 and she became the first Queen to rule England in her own rights. Mary was the only child of King Henry VIII and also Catherine Of Aragon. Mary believed in Catholicism and soon reinstalled Catholicism in England as she came into power. In her ruling time span, she burned hundreds of protestants at the stake and for critics she was nicknamed as “Bloody Mary”.
8. Timur
Timur or Timūr Gurkānī, was the founder of the Timurid Empire and he was a Turco-Mongol conqueror. He ruled the Timurid Dynasty which spread into areas of modern-day Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran and Syria. Reports say that Timur was never defeated and he is also known as the greatest military leader in history. Timur was so cruel that he made a tower of living men cemented one on the other, yeah they were living men. Once, in order to punish a rebellion he ordered a massacre and made a minaret with 70,000 heads.
7. Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan was the founder and first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. After his death the Mongol empire continuously became the biggest empire in history. Genghis Khan faced many problems in his teenage years as his father was burnt in hot oil in front of him when he was just 9 years old and it was also a main reason for his cruelty. He started conquering a major part of Central Asia and China after he united with Mongol Tribe. Genghis Khan is also known as the “Super Father” because some reports say that 8% of the population of the former Mongol Empire and 0.5% of the world’s population that is around 16 million belongs to Genghis Khan.
6. Attila the Hun
Attila the Hun, frequently called Attila. He was the ruler of the Huns from 434-453 until his death. Attila killed his brother for power and became the ruler of Hunnic Empire. He expanded his empire in the area of modern day Germany, Ukraine, Russia and the Balkans. He was so cruel that he marked on his reign that “There, where I have passed, the grass will never grow gain”.
5. Pol Pot
Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge and the Prime Minister of Cambodia from 1976 to 1979. Pot became leader of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. During his time in power, his radical communist government forced the mass evacuations of cities. Killed or displaced millions of people, and left a legacy of disease and starvation. Under his leadership, his government caused the deaths of at least one million people from forced labor, starvation, disease, torture, or execution.
4. Vlad Tepes
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (Vlad the Impaler) known for executing his enemies by impalement. He was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. He is best known for the legends of the exceedingly cruel punishments, he imposed during his reign. Also known for serving as the primary inspiration for the vampire. Vlad was a fan of various forms of torture including disemboweling and rectal and facial impalement.
He tortured thousands while he ate and drunk among the corpses. He impaled every person in the city of Amlas nearly 20,000 men, women and children. Vlad tortured the people ordering him to be skinned, boiled, decapitated, blinded, strangled, hanged, burned, roasted, hacked, nailed, buried alive, stabbed, etc.. He also liked to cut off noses, ears, sexual organs and limbs.
3. Ivan IV of Russia
Ivan IV of Russia (Ivan IV Vasilyevich), also know as Ivan the Terrible. He was the Grand Duke of Muscovy from 1533 to 1547. He was the first ruler of Russia and the first to be proclaimed tsar of Russia (from 1547).
Historic sources present disparate accounts of Ivan’s complex personality; He was described as intelligent and devout, yet given to rages and prone to episodic outbreaks of mental illness. He enjoyed burning 1000s of people in frying pans, and was fond of impaling people. Ivan’s soldiers built walls around the perimeter of the city in order to prevent the people of the city escaping. Between 500 and 1000 people were gathered every day by the troops, then tortured and killed in front of Ivan and his son.
He is also remembered for his paranoiac suspiciousness and cruel persecution of nobility. Ivan died from a stroke while playing chess with Bogdan Belsky on 28 March.
2. Adolph Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann was born in March 19, 1906, in Solingen, a small industrial city in the Rhineland. He was a German and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He was hanged by the state of Israel for his part in the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II. “The death of five million Jews on my conscience gives me extraordinary satisfaction.”
1. Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the King of the Belgians. And, he is chiefly remembered for the founding and brutal exploitation of the Congo Free State. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans. He succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death. Leopold created the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken to extract rubber and ivory in the Congo region of central Africa, which relied on forced labour and resulted in the deaths of approximately 3 million Congolese.